For The One Who Feels Rejected

The pain of rejection has pierced through my heart more times than I can say. I have felt rejected by family at times, rejected by peers, by church people, by friends, by other women. I have had seasons rich with community, and seasons where I’ve felt the familiar ache of loneliness and isolation. I have felt my heart longing for meaningful friendships and other women to “do” life with. I’ve sowed into friendships and tried and tried and tried only to get nowhere. I’ve been left feeling unworthy and wondering if I just don’t quite “fit in.” Wondering why true friendship is so hard to come by, wondering where my tribe is. I have walked into crowded rooms and felt alone, felt disconnected. I have believed the lies that I was either too much or not enough, and have even rejected myself or self-eliminated to forgo the pain of others doing it first. I have felt hurt and broken and had to fight to cling to truth, to cling to the one who sees every part of me and still accepts me and calls me worthy.

So today, this is to you: to the one who feels rejected. The one who feels left out and unwanted. The one who sees those groups of women together, and wonders why you haven’t seemed to find your tribe yet. To the stay-at-home mom who feels isolated and alone, struggling to find time and energy to connect. To the working mom who feels undervalued and unaccepted by other moms. To the girl who feels like she doesn’t belong and is trying to find her place in this world. To the girl who is gossiped about or feels misunderstood and less than. To the girl who’s sitting at home on a Friday night and cries when she sees her friends hanging out on Instagram, without inviting her.

I want you to know that I see you and that more importantly, God sees you. That I’ve all too often been where you’ve been and have shed many tears of loneliness over the years. That I know the pain that comes from feeling uninvited and unloved.

But today I want you to know that you are seen. That you matter. You are worthy, not because other people or women deem you worthy but because God says you are worthy. Worth & value is determined by what someone is willing to pay, and Jesus paid the highest price for you. He has changed you from rejected to accepted, transformed you from nothing to something. From cast aside, to set apart. And that kind of worth does not change based off of other people’s opinions: it is steadfast, never changing, never-ending.

“But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do His work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night and day difference he made for you. From nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

- 1 Peter 2: 8-10 (MSG)

He will never reject you. Never leave you. Never abandon you. He INVITES you into His family and into His kingdom and calls you His beloved.